US Defense Strategy Shift Prioritizes Homeland Security Over Global Allies

Mon Feb 02 2026 18:48:57 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The Pentagon's latest National Defense Strategy signals a pivotal change, emphasizing homeland security while reducing support for allies.

In a major policy shift, the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy focuses on the security of the U.S. homeland and the Western Hemisphere as its primary concern. The report indicates a 'more limited' support for allies, departing from previous strategies that highlighted threats from China as central to U.S. security. The strategy stresses that allies, particularly in Europe, should increase their defense responsibilities and implies a new realistic approach to international relations.

The US will offer more limited support to its allies, according to the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy.

In a significant shift to its security priorities, the US Department of Defense now considers the security of the US homeland and Western Hemisphere - not China - as its primary concern.

By comparison, previous versions of the defence strategy - published once every four years - named the multi-domain threat posed by China as the top defence priority for the US.

The new strategy reinforces recent comments made by US President Donald Trump, including calls for greater burden-sharing from US allies in countering threats posed by Russia and North Korea.

The new 34-page report follows last year's publication of the US National Security Strategy, which said Europe faced civilisational collapse and did not cast Russia as a threat to the US. At the time, Moscow said the document was largely consistent with its vision.

By comparison, in 2018, the Pentagon described revisionist powers, such as China and Russia, as the central challenge to US security.

The new strategy calls on American allies to step up, saying partners have been content to let Washington subsidise their defence, although it denies the shift signals a US move towards isolationism.

The report states: To the contrary, it means a focused and genuinely strategic approach to the threats our nation faces. Washington has long neglected the concrete interests of Americans, adding that the US does not want to conflate American interests with those of the rest of the world – that a threat to a person halfway around the world is the same as to an American.\p>

Instead, it says allies, especially Europe, will take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them.

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, is described as a persistent but manageable threat to NATO's eastern members.

Relations with China are to be approached through strength, not confrontation, the report indicates, aiming to prevent anyone, including China, from dominating US interests or those of its allies.

The strategy also outlines a more limited role for US deterrence of North Korea, asserting South Korea's capability for primary responsibility.

The path chosen by the Trump administration is described as fundamentally different from the grandiose strategies of the past post–Cold War administrations and emphasizes an approach of hardnosed realism.